Organizers in Iredell County have decided to end the Ole Time Fiddler's and Bluegrass Festival after 42 years.

Hank Van Hoy, whose father Harper started the festival in 1970, said the decision was based in part on the difficulty of organizing the festival while working full time and the cost of putting it on. He said it was better to leave people with good memories rather than have something just die on the vine.

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Van Hoy said efforts to bring more innovations to the festival, including a competition for younger musicians, wasn't enough to increase crowds.

Tom Hanchett, a historian at the Levine Museum of the New South in Charlotte, said the festival drew more than 10,000 people in the early days, but became a smaller, invitation-only event.